DROPPING CASE: The Justice Department said Thursday it will not try again to sue a watchdog group that shared money from a whistleblower settlement with a government economist more than 14 years ago.

MISTRIAL: Last month, a judge declared a mistrial when the eight jurors in the civil case failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

ROYALTIES UNDERPAID: In 1998, the Project on Government Oversight paid Richard A. Berman, then a government economist, nearly $400,000 from a $1.2 million settlement for exposing oil companies' underpayment of royalties to the government. The Justice Department argued the payment violated a federal ban on supplementing the salary of an executive branch employee.